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Garcia rides momentum to share of lead at Barclays

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FARMINGDALE, N.Y. – When Sergio Garcia gets it going, there may be no stopping him.

Fresh off a victory at last week’s Wyndham Championship and a 5 under in the first round of The Barclays, Garcia posted a 3-under 68 Friday at Bethpage Black and shares the 36-hole lead with Nick Watney.

“Obviously, we know how much confidence helps in this game,” Garcia said. “It’s feeling better out there, feeling more comfortable with what I’m doing, being able to more or less do the right things.”

In the past two weeks, Garcia has not only been doing the right things, he’s more or less been doing everything – all the thinking for himself, that is.

He won last week in Greensboro with local caddie David Faircloth and has employed a CBS spotter named Wayne Richardson on the bag at this week’s tournament.

Last week, Faircloth didn’t even carry a yardage book for Garcia. He carried his bag and cleaned his clubs. This week, Garcia has been walking off his own yardages.

“The good thing about this is that I’m making my decisions, good and bad,” he said.

This sudden surge of good play isn’t the first time we’ve seen Garcia get hot in consecutive weeks. As recent as last year, Garcia won back-to-back weeks in Spain at the Castello Masters and the Andalucia Masters.

“When you’re doing what you love doing and you’re doing it well, it’s obviously more fun than when you’re not,” Garcia said.

As much momentum as Garcia is building, he needs time off before the Ryder Cup to adequately prepare, which is why he has opted not to play in next week's Deutsche Bank Championship.

“Everyone knows how important the Ryder Cup is to me and I want to be fully fit there,' he said. 'I need to take a week off somewhere and unfortunately (the Deutsche Bank week) is the only one I can think of.”

But first, he has two more rounds of The Barclays to worry about.

Garcia will go out in the final pairing Saturday with Nick Watney at 1:45 p.m. ET.